A robotics entrepreneur says his company is involved in the creation of a "pregnancy robot," and that a prototype could be ready as early as next year.
"Some people don't want to get married but still want a 'wife'; some don't want to be pregnant but still want a child. So one function of our 'robot wife' is that it can carry a pregnancy," said Zhang Qifeng, founder of Kayiwa, a company based in the tech hubs of Shenzhen and Guangzhou in China's southern Guangdong province.
Why It Matters
China has invested heavily in robotics. The country is a leader in industrial robots per capita and has just hosted the first "World Humanoid Robot Games" in Beijing.
The push aims to prepare for a shrinking workforce as China becomes a super-aged society. In recent years, it has faced a flagging birth rate, as economic concerns and changing social attitudes push women to have children later than ever—or not at all.
Infertility has also risen, to 18 percent in 2020 from 12 percent in 2007, according to a report published by the medical journal The Lancet, with one out of every 5.6 couples of childbearing age facing difficulties conceiving.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry by email with a request for comment.
What To Know
Surrogacy is illegal in China, but Zhang, who says he holds Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, hopes to work around the ban with robots.
"We want to integrate a gestation chamber into a humanoid robot and build an artificial womb so it can carry a full-term pregnancy 'in the normal way,'" Zhang said in an early August video interview with Wen Zhengbin, a tech blogger who runs the channel Chat With Wen on China's major social media sites.
A synthetic uterus, which he says is already at a "mature" stage, would serve as an incubator for about 10 months, with nutrients delivered through a tube connected to the umbilical cord.
The concept recalls the temperature-controlled "biobag" used in 2017 by researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who simulated amniotic fluid with a warm saline solution and kept premature lambs alive for weeks.
Challenging Traditional Values
Zhang's comments were picked up in writing by the Chinese tech news app Kuaikeji, and the interview became a trending topic on the country's largest social media website, Weibo. However, news reports were quickly censored.
In a statement last week, Kayiwa said it was not developing a pregnancy robot and that its founder's comments had been taken out of context. Zhang also issued a statement on his personal Weibo account, saying the pregnancy robot was an overseas project, and that his company was only involved in the manufacture of the humanoid robot itself rather than the artificial womb.
Zhang said he did speak about the pregnancy robot in the interview, but said his words were edited out of context.
"Please delete [news reports] as soon as possible to avoid misunderstanding," said Zhang, whose company makes robot servers for restaurants. Another one of his companies makes flying and submersible drones with wide-ranging applications.
What People Are Saying
Users on Weibo were intrigued by the technological possibilities but also voiced skepticism about the unproven approach as well as the suggested possible future price point of around $14,000, roughly half of Beijing's average annual wage.
Experts also weighed in.
"Pregnancy is an extremely complex process, with each step being extremely delicate and critical," said Yi Fuxian, an obstetrician at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who conducts demographic research.
He told Newsweek the robot was "likely just a gimmick" and warned of "many health and ethical risks" even if it could ultimately bring a child to term.
He noted that the artificial gestation in sheep is not a reliable predictor for much longer-lived humans and "many health risks emerge at different ages, not to mention mental health issues."
What To Know
Zhang, who has held committee positions in the local chapter of the All-China Chamber of Industry and Commerce, said in the interview that he had already held discussions with the Guangdong provincial authorities about testing a prototype, but it is not clear if the product will be approved for sale.
Updated on 9/2/25 at 6:10 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional context including public statements by Kayiwa and its founder, Zhang Qifeng.
Corrected on 9/3/25 at 4:38 a.m. ET: Corrects the company name to Kaiwa rather than Kayiwa
